Wednesday, July 04, 2007

A bite too large

The photos of the house that TGF has been obsessing about finally came via email. I found it awhile ago, I think via realtor.com - a frequent haunt of mine these days. Now I am not foolish, by the price and neighborhood I knew it would need a lot of work. However it smelled of potential. I did start to think about things a bit more and how large a project it might be. TGF and I had a serious talk recently about the impact of taking on a such beast for our first project together. If it was a gut job there was no way we could live there and do the work, so that would mean covering the loans on the house and rent - still would be way less than our current rent but seriously, you know?

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand or thirty thousand words.

Offers a whole definition of indoor/outdoor plumbing, no? Yes that is outside plant life festooning the inside walls of the bathroom. Our Ohio connection friend Jer called after seeing the place which left her a bit speechless. Upon just stepping through the front door her realtor pal said "offer half the asking price". From that call it was clear that we would need to get a dumpster to rid the place of trash - and which from the few photos we have there's a lot of garage. A lot. It needs a new roof. Patches of the stucco are falling off the back of the house - lathe is showing. Not good.

I am sure there are some awesome details in this place but seriously we are talking a gut job here. I'm sure. It could be a fabulous home. But as our first renovation/flip property? I'm thinking no bloody way. I want our first couple of projects to be successful. Successful means we haven't killed each other, we make a little cash, and we are happy with what we produced.

but what an interesting idea, offering half the asking price! i would bet you could swing that $ wise then, and end up with a sweet place.

granted this is assuming you WANT to completely revamp a house and live elsewhere in the meantime. i certainly wouldn't. but if you think you can do that without killing each other, and even have a little fun, i'd say go for it.